The FIFA Scandal has quieted down a bit in recent weeks but Swiss and US prosecutors have been busy on the case while we have been watching the Women’s World Cup. The latest, Swiss officials have announced that they are investigating 28 new acts of money laundering involving bids from countries trying to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cups.
It is important to note that this is a separate investigation from the Swiss/US case that has targeted senior FIFA officials and may or may not result in the resignation of FIFA President Sepp Blatter. Related to the scandal, former CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb agreed to be extradited from Switzerland to the United States to face charges.
This investigation is focused on the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber has led the group in investigating these 28 new acts of money laundering, in addition to 53 acts of “suspicious incidents” surrounding the bid process that Swiss officials were already made aware.
This is yet another update on how corrupt FIFA is. FIFA has been in a zone where nothing they do can be considered shocking (except Blatter announcing his resignation) because FIFA amazes us with the things they think they can get away with. We have known the corrupt nature from FIFA before the 2018 and 2022 World Cup vote as well as during the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process with the (limited release of the) Garcia Report. And even though they’re talking a big game and saying they are going to be more transparent and officials resigning or maybe resigning in the case of Blatter, but FIFA is going to have to prove they’re not corrupt and prove it in a huge way before I begin to believe them.
